It is known to discern the topology of a network from data regarding the network. However, the data can include errors and inconsistent information. For example, false entities, duplicate entities, data overlap, lost connections resulting in isolated islands of entities, and so forth, can result in an inaccurate topology or topology representation. The errors can be introduced, for example, into the topology data via multiple discoveries of the same router from different directions, via partial discovery of a node from a given direction, from partial SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) access to a node, from incorrect discovery seeding configurations (for example, human-generated list(s) of devices used as a starting point for discovering nodes or devices in a network), and so forth. The same physical interface can erroneously appear on multiple node entities, and can erroneously appear on a given node multiple times.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,172,986 discloses a mobile node moving from a first IP (Internet Protocol) network having a first kind of IP to a second IP network having a second kind of IP, in a network system. When the mobile node communicates a message with other nodes on the first network after its movement, a header for the movement containing both home and foreign addresses in the first kind of IP is added to a header containing home and foreign addresses in the second kind of IP, and the headers are added to the message.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,188,784 discloses an apparatus for handling communications from both IPv4 and IPv6 terminals.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,038,233 discloses a translator for coupling a first network such as an internet protocol version 4 (IPv4) and a second network such as an internet protocol version 6 (IPv6) having different addressing architectures for IP addresses.